Exploration licensing bid date pushed

The government has once again extended the deadline for bids in the latest exploration licensing round.

The ninth round of the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), which was launched at the beginning of the year, was to close on February 29 but has been extended multiple times. The latest deadline of July 15 has now been extended to August 31, according to a notification by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the oil ministry arm that auctions licences.

Some of the previous licensing rounds have also witnessed multiple bid submission deadline extensions, which are made in the hope of attracting more, especially foreign, bidders. Despite deadline extensions, foreign and private players have shown limited interest in India's exploration licensing rounds.

State-run explorers have dominated licensing auctions in the past decade. They have bid for and won most exploration licences in most rounds, except the first when a private player, Vedanta, was the top winner.